Process of utilizing waste furnace-gases and simultaneously reducing ores.



No. 769,263. I 'PATENTED SEPT. 6, 1904.

J. HERMAN. I PROCESS OF UTILIZING WASTE FURNACE GASES AND SIMULTANBOUSLYREDUCING ORES.

APPLIOATIOR rILnn APR. 29. 1904. 1

No MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented September 6, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN HERMAN, OF BISBEE, ARIZONA TERRITORY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 769,263, dated eptember6, 1904;.

Application filed April29, 1904. Serial No. 205,613. (N0 specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J oI-IN'Hnn AN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Bisbee, in the county of Cochise and Territory of Arizona,have invented new and useful Improvements in Processes of UtilizingWaste Furnace-Gases and Simultaneously Reducing Ores, of which thefollowing is a specification. My invention pertains to the use of wastfurnace-gases in conjunction with oxidized ores or metallic oxids with aview of utilizing the calorific value of the gases and reducing metallicoxide to globules of metals at one and the same time, the reduction of'the metallic oxids to metallic globules being advantageous in that itadapts the metals for concentration by Well-known processes.

With the foregoing in mind the invention will be fully understood fromthe following description and claim whentaken in connecadmission of air,and thereby adapted to do its'work continuously for an indefiniteperiod. Incident to the passage of the wastefurnacegases through or overthe roasted ore or other metallic oXids ten thousand and fifty Britishthermal units of heat are liberated for each pound of unsaturated carbonin the gases, and the following are typical reactions, viz:

' CO I QFGO and 2FeO+ O I F6203. 2Cu+ O I C1120 I CI I2O+O I ZCuO.

and

When this is done, the carbon 1110- The heat generated-in the mannerdescribed may be used for heating air-blasts for furnaces or for heatingboilers or other devices or for general heating purposes. i As will bereadily appreciated, the embodiment of my invention described ismaterially advantageous because the full calorific value of the wastefurnace-gases'is utilized instead of a mere fraction of such'value.

In copper-matting and lead-blast furnace practice at least three-fourthsdown to twothirds of the carbon in the charge is burned to carbonmonoxid instead of being burned to carbon dioxid, withthe result thathalf of the fuel value of the entire charge is lost.

This will be appreciated'when it is remembered that the calorificvalueof carbon when burned to carbon dioXid is eight thousand andeighty, while it is only two thousand four hundred and seventy whencarbon monoxid is produced.

As furnace-gases will not unite with air alone, it follows that heatingthe blast with such gases as now practiced affords only the advantage ofthe temperature of'the gases and not their fuel value. My processaffords both and is more efficient than heating the blast with fuel,since the gases are alreadyhot, the cost of installation iscomparativelysmall,

all fuel is saved, and a comparatively small amount of labor andattention is required.

WVlien used'for treating ores, the full value of fuel is used, and themetals and gangue are left in'good condition for mechanicalconcentration. V

In utilizing the heat generated as described. for heating air blasts forfurnaces or for heating boilers or for. general heating purposes pipesare passed through the co1npartment containing the metallic oXids of thepreferred furnace, which I will now proceed to describe.

Referring by letter to the drawings, A is a furnace having a fire-box a,and a feed-door 6, and B is a cylinder, preferably arevolving Icylinder,amounted on rollers c and arranged to receive gases from thefurnace after the manner shown in Fig. l. The said cylinder B, whichresembles a Bruckner cylinder, is provided on itsinner side with shelves(Z for roasted ore, Fig. 2, and contains a plurality of air-pipes e,which are preferably square in cross-section, as shown, this in order toenable them to serve as shelves and bring metallic oxids and flue-gasesin contact to a considerable extent. By this means also the surface ofore exposed is renewed. The speed of the cylinder may be very low or thecylinder may be left idle, as preferred.

The ends of the pipes remote from the furnace A are designed to beconnected with a blast or other source of fluid-pressu re sup ply, whichI have deemed it unnecessary to illustrate, while the other ends of thesaid pipes are arranged to discharge into a receiver C, (shown at theleft of Fig. 1,) which receiver is provided with a conduit D forcarrying the hotairto the point where it is to be utilized.

While 1 have shown and described an ap paratus for carrying out myprocess, I desire it distinctly understood that the apparatus may bemodeled after any desirable type of roaster or may be of any otherconstruction without affecting" my invention.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

JOHN HERMAN.

\Yitnesses:

